Think New Mexico has just released a new report proposing reforms to bring our state’s legislative ethics laws in line with the majority of other states and with the other two branches of state government. The report includes reforms to strengthen the ethics laws that apply to legislators, lobbyists, and dark money groups, bringing more transparency to the legislative process. Click here to read more about the reforms we’re proposing.
These reforms are supported by large majorities of New Mexico voters, based on an August 2026 poll conducted by Dr. Gabriel Sanchez of BSP Polling.
POLL RESULTS & OVERVIEW:
Click Here for Topline
Click Here for Memo from BSP Polling
Click here for Slide Deck from BSP Polling
If you’d like to be part of this effort to modernize New Mexico’s legislative ethics laws, please contact your legislators and the governor and urge them to enact these reforms during the upcoming 2027 legislative session!
This summer, we are excited to be working with Marly Fisher, who grew up in Albuquerque and is now earning dual degrees in History and Philosophy from Sciences Po in France and Columbia University; Ian Hernandez, who grew up in Santa Fe and just earned his B.A. in Socio-Legal Studies and History from the University of Denver; Viviana Ornelas, who was the Valedictorian of her Capital High School class in Santa Fe and is now earning a B.A. in Psychology and Public Policy with a minor in Education and Society from the University of Chicago; and Awlen Salazar, who earned his B.A. in Political Science from New Mexico State University and is now pursuing a Master’s of Public Policy at the University of New Mexico.
Read more about this year’s Leadership Interns.
When the legislature adjourned last month, some urgent business was left unfinished: joining eight interstate compacts for health care workers.
While Senate Bill 1 was passed to bring New Mexico into the doctor compact, bills to join compacts for psychologists, counselors, EMTs, physician’s assistants, speech therapists and audiologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and dentists died in Senate Committees after passing the House unanimously.
As we wrote in a recent opinion editorial, New Mexicans need these compacts now: students with learning disabilities are waiting a year or more for appointments with speech therapists as their conditions worsen; 845,000 New Mexicans live in an area with fewer than one behavioral health care provider per 30,000 residents; and New Mexico needs an additional 2,326 EMTs just to meet national benchmarks.
Along with increasing access to care, there is also federal money at stake. In New Mexico’s successful application for $211 million in federal funding for rural hospitals, the state pledged to join four compacts: for physicians, physician assistants (PAs), EMTs, and psychologists. During the session, the Chief Medical Officer of the New Mexico Health Care Authority testified that the agency is concerned that some of that $211 million could be clawed back if the PA, EMT, and psychologist compacts are not passed this year. The state also stands to lose out on additional money from the next round of federal funding this fall.
So we are urging Governor Lujan Grisham to convene a special session to pass the rest of the compacts this year. The governor has consistently supported the compacts, as has the House, which passed them unanimously in 2025 and 2026. The key is getting enough state senators on board.
Please join us in emailing your lawmakers and urging them to support passing the compacts in a special session this year!
During the 2026 legislative session, Think New Mexico successfully advocated for the passage of five major reforms:
- House Bill 30, which increases the stipend for teacher residencies, making it more feasible for incoming teachers to participate in this high-quality teacher training. Read more about this reform.
- A record $13 million in this year’s budget bill (House Bill 2) for the Strategic Water Reserve, a water management tool that Think New Mexico spearheaded the development of two decades ago to keep more water in New Mexico’s rivers. Read more about this reform.
Think New Mexico also successfully opposed the passage of Senate Bill 309, which proposed to repeal the law guaranteeing that 30% of lottery revenues must go to the scholarship fund, replacing it with a flat distribution of $45 million per year. Read more about this issue.
Earlier this year a dark money group called “New Mexico Safety Over Profit” (NMSOP) was sued by the state Ethics Commission for refusing to comply with the state law that required them to disclose the sources of their funding. NMSOP was the public face of the opposition to Think New Mexico’s proposed reforms to the medical malpractice law during the last legislative session.
NMSOP was adamant that they would not reveal their donors, telling the investigative news outlet Searchlight New Mexico: “We certainly will not be disclosing our donors, nor do we have to.”
NMSOP has now done just that.
In order to settle the 73-page legal action filed by the New Mexico Ethics Commission, NMSOP is paying a $5,000 fine, the maximum amount authorized for violations of the Lobbyist Regulation Act, and releasing their full list of donors.
So who was secretly funding this dark money group?
As it turns out, 100% of their donors are trial lawyers, law firms, and one paralegal. Over 74% of their donors are current board members or past presidents of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association (which is itself listed as a donor). You can see the full list here: sorted alphabetically by donor or sorted by donation amount.
Thanks to the New Mexico Ethics Commission, the public now knows that NMSOP is a front group for the trial lawyer’s lobby, which is focused on protecting the financial interests of its members. Reforms that Think New Mexico has proposed—like capping attorney’s fees in medical malpractice lawsuits—would put more money in patients’ pockets but would reduce the amount of money going to their attorneys.
A dark money group, New Mexico Safety over Profits (NMSOP), with deep ties to the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, attacked Think New Mexico in a recent opinion piece in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
That opinion piece is filled with some wild, over the top conspiracy theories (you can read it here, with our annotations and corrections). You can read our response in the Santa Fe New Mexican at this link.
You can also read the 73-page lawsuit against NMSOP that was filed by the New Mexico Ethics Commission over NMSOP’s refusal to disclose its donors, as well as an investigative piece by Searchlight New Mexico on NMSOP’s misleading practices.
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Think New Mexico is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Think New Mexico's EIN is 31-1611995. Financials and more information is available on our transparency page.
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